Tropical Vacation!

We're leaving for a vacation to Puerto Rico today, so I'm going to be posting some pre-written posts over the next week, but will be back with photos and stories from our trip when we return!

Stay tuned for the tropical edition of Dining and Opining, featuring fresh fruit and spicy sauces, warm baked goods and street food.

Some of the things I'm particularly excited about:

• Adobo sauce: made by crushing together peppercorns, oregano, garlic, salt, olive oil, and lime juice or vinegar, and used to flavor many island dishes
• Sofrito: potpourri of onions, garlic, coriander, and peppers browned in olive oil and colored with annatto seeds, which imparts the bright-yellow color to the island's rice, soups, and stews. 
• Tostones: Fried slices of either plantains or green breadfruit, which is a large, round fruit from a tropical tree that has a thick green rind covering its starchy, sweet flesh.
• Piraguas: A shaved ice cone covered with syrup of fruity flavors such as: raspberry, pineapple, coconut, guava or tamarind, among others.
• Tropical Fruits of all sorts! Bananas of different varieties than the Cavendish we find in the U.S. Papaya. Mango. Chironja--cross between orange and grapefruit. Coconut. Soursop. Pineapple. Star Apple. Avocado! Passion Fruit. Tamarind. Oh my!
• These Vegetarian Restaurants! Especially: La Buena Mesa de Oscar, La Zanahoria, Bangkok & Bombay

(Sources:  http://www.topuertorico.org/culture/foodrink.shtml, http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/tropical-fruit/, www.vegguide.org/region/616)